Tuesday, December 9, 2008

How comic book brawls have changed

Say what you will, but I enjoy a good old-fashioned super-hero brawl. And I DO mean "old-fashioned" because how fights are depicted has changed quite a bit over the last few decades. Take, for example, my (still) favorite Green Lantern brawl of all time, the slugfest between Hal Jordan and Prince Peril from Green Lantern #45 (1966). It starts off with THIS shot to the gut:Now, that's a hit you don't often see in modern comics, and I think the reason is pretty obvious. It's hard -- VERY hard -- to illustrate that kind of gut shot and make it NOT look, instead, like a shot to the crotch -- or something worse.

Just for the fun of it, here's the REST of the fight. It takes place on a Western movie set (the world's best setting for a brawl, in my humble opinion):Now, if this fight were to occur in a MODERN comic, there would be quite a few differences. Chief among them:

1. This fight would have occurred over MOST of the comic book issue. As it is, it actually happened in less than three pages.

2. There would be blood EVERYWHERE, and Hal's costume would be torn in at least five places, including at least one arm, one leg, and one tear across the chest. There might even be a broken bone or two.